The Life And History Of William Denning Who Cast The First Wrought Iron Cannon For The American Army At The Outbreak Of The Revolutionary War Classic Reprint

Excerpt from The Life and History of William Denning, Who Cast the First Wrought-Iron Cannon for the American Army at the Outbreak of the Revolutionary War History has been very kind to great soldiers and warriors. Its pages have been filled for the most part with ba'ttles which decided the fate of nations, and with the deeds Of heroes whose garments were rolled in the blood of thousands of their fellow men. Blood and slaughter, rapine and destruction have al ways had a strange fascination for mankind. Lurid frescoes drawn and painted by sword and fire have fixed the gaze Of the ages. Out from the gloomy clouds of war and battle, like stars out of a cloudy sky, flash here and there the names of a few, the magnitude of whose deeds have made them im mortal, but oblivion has covered as with a mantle the lives and labors of many humbler and worthier men. It is always commendable to rescue from forgetfulness the memory of those who by reason of superior mechanical genius, first prao tically accomplished what had hitherto only floated as misty dreams in the brain of theorists. Such is the object of this little book. Ever since the death of William Denning, occa sional efforts have been made to do justice to his memory, but besides a few brief newspaper articles and an attempt to' create a memorial fund, nothing was effected until by legis lative enactment and appropriation, a beautiful monument has been erected to his memory. What is known of the life of this man ought to be written. To him belongs the honor of having successfully made the first wrought iron cannon ever used in war. Out of the misty shadows of the past, from the living lips of those who knew the man, from men and women, from letters and from tradition, have been gath ered with much labor this humble contribution to the mem ory of a worthy man. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This book describes the lives of the men at war; the history and lives of the men at war; the history and construction of their rifles, muskets, cannon, small arms and swords and how they were used in the Revolutionary War.